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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Hi folks! It's so great to have more options for sending Hanukkah greetings. The new Festival of Lights set from CAS-ual Fridays includes this wonderful, bold sentiment that easily takes the focus on a card. How cool is the "happy" right in the middle of "hanukkah"! The triple line stamp is also fun to fill up a card, especially in rainbow colors. I added some flames to break up the lines a little.

Settle in, because you're going to see this stamp another three more times! It's that good : )

This is the card I started out with. Easiest card ever! Such a great candidate for mass production since you just cut some patterned paper and ink up one stamp. Not everything has to be rocket science, right?! Just because it's easy doesn't mean it can't look sharp and trendy.

What's better than one rainbow card? Two rainbow cards! This time the sentiment itself makes the rainbow. I inked up the "happy" part of the stamp separately and stamped it across the middle.

The thickness of the letters makes for one vibrant card. I don't have a misti so the sentiments aren't lined up exactly, but I think that's perfectly OK. It's handmade after all!

For the last card I ended up making a menorah using sticky notes for masking and the triple line stamp. On the sticky notes I drew little lines at the middle of each letter so I would know where to stamp the triple lines. The base of the menorah is none other than the Bubble Label Fri-die. I just love how it worked out here!

Check out the rest of the Ink Squad to see more awesome projects with these stamps:

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Hi folks! It's still been much quieter than I'd like on the blog, but happily the next several days will have a lot of activity as a bunch of new stamps and dies from CAS-ual Fridays will be released! Today's featured set has so many possibilities for Fall with different leaves (including veins and outlines), acorns and sentiments. And there's even a Fri-die set to go with it!

This adorable acorn has a wood grain cap and a nut that corrals a repeated sentiment. Some shading and a gold thread bow finish this little guy. The sentiments in this set are mostly separate so you can mix and match words, AND easily make parts of the sentiment a different color, like the orange "blessings" here. In this case if the whole sentiment was dark brown, you'd miss out on tying the sentiment in with the plaid (red, blue or orange would tie in the plaid).

Don't forget the inside. Damask, or any other tightly repeated pattern, would work nicely against the harvest plaid.

The different ways these solid leaf stamps can be used are numerous. Here I've stamped them on burlap before stamping on the card. The texture that's created from the burlap is easier to see on the brown leaves.

The sentiments in the set are all autumn-themed, but remember, "Thanksgiving" can always be turned into "Thanks" by not inking the rest of the word. The Pretty Pink Posh sequins in different sizes and colors add to the random nature of a fallen leaves pile.

I have to admit, there are many other ideas I had for this set. Stay tuned tomorrow for more new cards, stamps and dies!

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Hello everyone! You have likely seen a lot of awesome companies pairing up with Simon Says Stamp this month to offer exclusive stamp and/or die sets for their STAMPtember® celebration. Well, I am very excited to share the news about Winnie & Walter joining the fun with their own stamp and die set. Let me tell you, I had a blast playing with them!

That big bloom is chock full of possibilities, and if it wasn't for my husband begging me to come spend some time with him I would have been at it for who knows how long!

First up is a one-layer stamped card, with some vintage seam binding tape sewn on the bottom.

After stamping the flower outline in navy, I "colored" the petals fuchsia with the round "enjoy" stamp that is meant for the center. It doesn't completely fill the petals, and sometimes it goes outside the lines, but I think it has more of an artsy look that way. Continuing with the artsy look, I scribbled in the outer layer of petals with a peach Copic marker. Very quick to finish.

Here's a closer look at the vintage seam binding tape. I adhered it to the card with a tape runner and then sewed on top of it for added texture. Since it's the same color as the card base (white) it doesn't distract too much from the big bloom, the focus of the card.

One more project, this one uses the bloom repeatedly down the front of the card.

And, if you didn't notice, it actually IS the front of the card! I thought it would be fun to attach the blooms all together and skip the card front for a little something different. Plus it lets the pretty background show through.

The entire bloom is stamped once on the mint patterned paper, and then a second time on white cardstock. For the white layer I've cut off the outer layer of petals and just used the inner layer. The white petals are curled upwards slightly with my fingers. Gold embossing finishes the look (gold + mint + white + orange = yummm!)

For the middle of the blooms I misted them with water, scrunched them, flattened them out a little and then let them dry. Super easy way to get additional texture and dimension.

The banner die-cut is from a soon-to-be-released die set (shhh!) and the sentiment is from winnie & walter's Bubble Talk. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the post at Simon Says Stamp for a ton of inspiration and more projects with this set!